Two of many reasons why Birmingham is such a special place to live. (Homewood: best suburbs)

[raj kapoor]

These two communities in Birmingham may be getting the recognition, (frequently) but the metro has so many wonderful communities and neighborhoods that make it a great place to live and enrich one's life.

Numbers 4 and 32, out of the 50 most livable suburbs in the nation. Not a bad showing. But those of us who live here are well aware of these special places.
Congrats to some other wonderful communities, especially in and around Cincinnati.

Best Suburbs In America - Business Insider

[Nemean]

There's something odd about their methodology. Only seven cities outside of the Midwest have any suburbs mentioned (and Pittsburgh could easily be argued as Midwest at that), and Birmingham is the only one with more than one suburb on the list.

[raj kapoor]

Originally Posted by Nemean

There's something odd about their methodology. Only seven cities outside of the Midwest have any suburbs mentioned (and Pittsburgh could easily be argued as Midwest at that), and Birmingham is the only one with more than one suburb on the list.

Read more carefully; as you will find that Cincinnati has six or seven listed. And several other cities have multiples including Minneapolis/St. Paul and I believe Houston. Detroit has several. (many don't know that only the inner city is destitute. The wealthy suburbs are fine, as is the quality of life) Milwaukee also has two or three, I believe.

I found the methodology reasonable considering one can skew anything and will these days. It should be considered both objectively and subjectively, but that really requires knowing some of the communities. For instance, I notice that almost all are older inner ring suburbs.

[bluebeard]

We also factored in average commute times, median household income, poverty and crime rates, public school ratings from GreatSchools.org, and a measure of housing affordability.

The Midwest pretty much has the lowest housing prices and often comes up as the most affordable areas in the countries. The Southeast is cheap too, but the Midwest is often even cheaper.

The South often has higher crime rates, higher poverty, and lower public school ratings. Although using Greatschools is silly, since a lot of the factors within that are state-dependent.

Inner ring suburbs are probably there because of the commute factor. And while sometimes they are lumped in with the inner city since white flight and all that extended to them (e.g. Fairfield, Center point), often they are also the wealthiest parts a metro with the best schools (e.g. Mtn Brook, Vestavia, Homewood).

The ratings make sense when looking at the factors. Its whether you agree with the factors. And also with the narrowness of only measuring them in a single small community, rather than a whole metro or something like that). I'd argue the Midwest pops up because it also has the most segregated metros in the country. Its easiest to be the "best" in affordability, safety, and poverty when you are a little island of prosperity.

[bluebeard]

Most Segregated Cities Census Maps - Business Insider

Take this list, weight it by affordability (i.e. total population size, job environment, civil planning and building codes, etc...), and you pretty much have the the "best suburbs". Note how detroit, Milwaukee, cincinnati, cleveland are some of the highest segregated affordable areas and also prominently appear on the initial list.